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Parkinson presses on with plans

Date published: Wednesday 3rd June 2015 2:47

Parkinson’s name appears on the radar of most managerless clubs outside the top flight after the Bantams’ success in recent seasons and the club refused to grant Sheffield United permission last week to speak with him about their latest vacancy.

The Blades were understood to have been reluctant to trigger a six-figure release clause in Parkinson’s contract and appointed Nigel Adkins as their new manager on Tuesday.

United’s approach coincided with Gianni Paladini’s unsuccessful takeover bid after the former QPR chairman was unable to reach agreement with Bradford before the expiry of his exclusivity agreement at midnight last Friday.

“We’ve been planning for next season anyway, but the takeover situation was beginning to get in the way a bit,” Parkinson said.

“It’s very important when you are speaking to players and their agents because they all want to know what they’re coming into.

“The takeover situation has been out there in the media and they want to know about it.

“Good players often have more than one club interested and all of them will not want to commit themselves to a club that has an uncertain future.”

Bradford finished the season one place and four points adrift of the play-offs and won international acclaim for a stunning FA Cup run that included wins over Chelsea and Sunderland.

Parkinson added: “Stability is the key if we are to build on that this summer.

“We hope we can put all the uncertainty behind us and focus on bringing in some players who will improve the squad further.”